BEN WHISHAW AND BERTIE CARVEL LOCK HORNS IN EURIPIDES' TRAGEDY

Part of the #AlmeidaGreeks season of three plays ressurected for the modern audience, Bakkhai (The Bacchae) is led by two astonishing performers; Ben Whishaw broods and schemes as the cunning god of sensual pleasure Dionysos, while Bertie Carvel tries to maintain order in the dreadful chaos that ensues as Dionysos' mortal cousin, the Theban king Pentheus.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

When the ruler Pentheus slanders Dionysos as not being a true god, and therefore forbidding any worship of the deity, the god himself is arrested in disguise as a follower. Speaking cryptically to the king, he challenges the accusation whilst still maintaining his human form; the king has him thrown into jail. Dionysos proceeds to rain fire and hell onto the kingdom, whilst up in the mountains, a group of usually calm women start acting strangely, making wine flow from their staffs, tearing animals apart - forming the first Baccanal. As Dionysus finds more and more reasons to be angry with the king, he exacts a bloody vengeance on the hapless ruler , by using his new followers - his Maenads, including Pentheus' elderly mother, who is under the god's thrall.